Bill the Unlucky Cat
Bill the Unlucky Cat (French: Bill le Chat Malchanceux) is a traditionally animated French comedy webseries created by Jennifer le Lamine, and produced by Prerana. The series is mainly (and heavily) inspired by Oggy and the Cockroaches. It is currently ongoing as of season 3. It is also the first webseries to be made by Prerana. The show officially takes place in the same universe as Gunbreak and Slapstick Slaughter. It is mainly animated using Toonz. Synopsis The show takes place in Animeville (a parody of Animville), a huge town that's mostly populated by humans and anthropomorphic animals. It mainly centers around a cat named Billiam Watterson, mostly referred to by Bill for short. He is unintentionally forced to live Development The backgrounds are strongly influenced by old Flash-animated cartoons, to keep them simple (but not too detailed, either), in case it needs to be redrawn in another perspective for every shot. The show's writing is also inspired of the writing from the cartoon The Amazing World of Gumball. For the show to reach a worldwide audience easier, the show does not use any dialogue and instead has the characters speaking in gibberish or the animals making their sounds, followed by written text kept to a minimum (originally being ciphers), similar to Oggy. American people instead actually voice the characters in the show despite that it's French (recorded in ShoutOut voice studio), supposedly parodying how some television show information sites list Oggy and the Cockroaches having Canadian people voicing the characters. The show was originally planned to end after season 2 was finished, but Jennifer thought kids might be missing it, so season 3 was released after the show's first anniversary, but Jennifer has confirmed she does indeed have plans to end the show, because she doesn't want it to suffer from seasonal rot.The official BtUC crew. Tumblr. Retrieved July 19 2017. The series also went through big changes. Originally: * Bill was going to be called just "Bill". Later, the crew found out that the name was actually copyrighted, so they named him after Bill Watterson, creator of Calvin & Hobbes. Also afraid of a lawsuit (from Watterson), his full name later is "Billiam Watterson", and "Bill" is just a nickname most people refer him by. * Bill was auditioned by Don Michael Paul and Bill Farmer, Liam was auditioned by Greg Eagles, Pearl was auditioned by Jessica DiCicco and April Winchell, Belle was auditioned by Tara Strong and Ruby was auditioned by Michaela Dietz and Mona Marshall. * Bill was going to be much more unlucky, such as him supposedly having his full name being based after a fictional character which resulted into him getting laughed at (or even bullied) and suffering from blindness and sickness, which later became much more worse when there was a concept where he had an extremely ugly face, he had to hide it in a paper bag with eyeholes so he can properly see and "not give everyone nightmares". The latter later became part of the Slapstick Slaughter character Uranus. * Liam was going to be called "Buck", as opposed to Bill's name. * Belle was going to be Bill's twin sister (like Monica was Oggy's twin sister), but felt like incest would be actually wrong to appeal in a decent (as opinionated by the crew) cartoon. * The characters were heavily redesigned: Pearl was going to be much shorter than Bill, wearing a bow on her head and having long ears, like Olivia. Bill, Belle and Pearl were going to wear glasses, while Liam was going to wear goggles. The first episode (supposedly a pilot) also was drawn in an art style which seems to be similar (and a combination of) to Garfield and The Loud House. * Larry was going to have a nasty trigger temper, based off of Lambu (from Pakdam Pakdai)'s phrase "Don't make me angry". There was even going to be an episode where Larry got extremely berserk, that Bill had a hard time fighting him (but won at the end anyway). This trait was later inherited into Charlie, and the concept of the episode was almost going to be reused for the moment that Milky Way was going to go very insane and monstrous that he would fight Bill. * Bill was going to have his screams and yells provided by Samantha Kelly, sounding similar to Toad from the Mario franchise. * Bill was going to have different friends, which were three insects (a fly, an ant and a cockroach, respectively). This later became his trait where he was good friends with many types of insects ever since he was against adventuring. * Wendy was going to look strongly similar to Almond (from Cucumber Quest). She was even going to have the same name as her. Pilots and original short * The cat, the girl and the spider was the original internet short, which served as a parody of Oggy and the Cockroaches with (tame) black comedy, when Jennifer le Lamine was obsessed with the said show at the time. However, Prerana loved the short that it later was greenlit for a television series concept, that later influenced the first pilot of the show. It was made in June 13, 2014 and it was instead animated using Adobe Flash, followed by its art style mainly being inspired by the original work it was supposedly parodying. Jennifer le Lamine provided the voice of Lilydale and Sally, while Jesse Francois provided the voice of Bill. * Bill the Unlucky Cat is the first pitch pilot of the show. It was made in June 20, 2014 and introduces the characters Ruby and Sapphire. Bill was now voiced by Hugues le Bars, Lilydale was now voiced by Anouck Hautbois, Ruby was now voiced by Mélanie Dambermont and Sapphire was now voiced by Élisabeth Guinand. * Bill the Cat, Against Adventure! is the second pitch pilot of the show. It was made in June 27, 2014. However, Bill is depicted as a yellow cat instead of a green cat, ironically representing how he's bad at making friends despite he's nice and kind, and he later was given a personality on that he was against adventuring and would prefer staying home, being lazy. His owner later became a 12-year old girl named Wendy who would constantly invite Bill adventuring, who later became the owner of his best friend Belle. Wendy was voiced by Marie Facundo. As confirmed by Jennifer, the reason why Lilydale got replaced by Wendy was because "Lily isn't really the adventuring type". Wendy's prototype design originally looked strongly similar to the mascot of Wendy's, but was altered in order to prevent a possible lawsuit. * Lily & Bill is the third pitch pilot of the show, made in July 3, 2014. It was very similar to the final product, except Liam became a supporting character, while Lilydale became a major character. The concept got scrapped and didn't influence any of its final results. * Pause Pistol is the fourth pitch pilot of the show, made in July 8, 2014. It was instead similar to Jennifer's shorts Bill was instead depicted as being more of a jerk, which later influenced the show Gunbreak. Also, he and Lilydale instead got guns as their weapons, which have the ability to control time (originally those were actually implied to do that). * Slapstick Slaughter is the fifth pitch pilot of the show, made in July 12, 2014. which introduces Requino (a shark), Lemmy (a lizard), Iggy (a hyena), Mary (a mermaid) and Oliver (another cat, who is Bill's love interest), and has its art style influenced by old cartoons, complete with it being entirely black and white. However, it was for an older audience (by the blood, despite it is black), being targeted to teenagers. It later influenced the show of the same name. Characters Major characters * Billiam Watterson/'Bill' (voiced by Tom Kenny, cries provided by Andrea Libman): The titular character of the series. He is an overweight, greenish-cyan anthropomorphic cat with a light lime green mask-like marking, who officially belongs to Lilydale and Wendy, and had bad luck since he was a kitten. He, however, is very nice and kind. He also seems to love pastries and desserts, but he'll also eat meaty foods. He is based off of Oggy, but he is more active, curious, slightly energetic, more feminine and is afraid of failure (which is the reason why he always doesn't manage to successfully get along with the mice, but it's always their fault anyway). He also is named after the bills people pay in real life, but he ironically. He has musophobia (fear of mice), but is ironically rather brave enough to actually try and face the mice brothers who mainly ruin his life. He mainly fights the mice with a frying pan that has a flower on it. * The mice brothers: The main antagonists sent by Ruby, who are based off of the cockroaches, that torture everyone. Their names are obviously based on the English names of the Chuha party, from Pakdam Pakdai. Despite they are mice, they are taller than Bill. ** Charlie (voiced by Tony Sampson): The oldest brother based off of Joey and Lori Loud from The Loud House, who leads the trio and is the most obnoxious and sadistic, but he is very aware that Bill doesn't deserve to die, less than Ruby and Leni. He has yellow fur. ** Larry (voiced by Samuel Vincent): The middle-aged brother based off of Marky, Candy Caramella from Space Goofs and Leni Loud from The Loud House, who is very thin and tall. He sometimes wastes his time flirting with women, which always goes unsuccessful, until he had a serious crush with Leni. He is also quite absent-minded, which sometimes results into him failing to be evil. He has purple fur, has a tall and skinny build, has his ears looking curvier (like horns) and has swirly whiskers. ** Marley (voiced by Matt Hill): The youngest brother based off of Dee Dee, who is overweight and has has the goal of eating everything successfully, thanks to his (fake) teeth being made out of white diamonds. He has cyan-navy blue fur, has his height being short and is very chubby, looking similar to a bear. * Pearl Prudence (voiced by Jill Talley): Bill's childhood friend (who later became his deep crush) who moved to Animeville. She is a cerise anthropomorphic cat who wears a light blue flower on her right ear. She is based off of Olivia, but actually doesn't mind when a part of nature is destroyed; unless said destroyer is actually evil. Minor characters * William Watterson Walters/'Liam' (voiced by Jim Cummings, cries provided by Grey Griffin): Bill's adopted cousin who also lives with him. He is a muscular navy blue cat with a purple mask-like marking, who is extremely anthropomorphic. He mainly fights the mice with a frying pan, that has a skull on it, named as the Dying Pan. He is based off of Jack, but he is much more manlier than Bill, very smart in a quite sadistic way, and actually doesn't prefer showing off on how cool he is or flirt with various women, but later started caring for Belle and married her. * Belle Jillians (voiced by Jessica DiCicco): An odango cat(name origin by Spiders, bugeyedfreaks Discord server) An odango cat is a fictional cat breed, in which cats have ears like hair, and their ears are colored differently (though there is a rare chance where their ears will be the same color as their fur). There is also a rare chance odango cats may have their tails colored differently. Some odango cats also style their ears either swirly, in odangos or pigtails (ponytails if long ears)., who is Bill's best friend, Liam's love interest since Liam was a teenager (and later, his wife) and Wendy's cat, who has dark lime green fur with a light green-cyan mask-like marking and long, orange-colored ears tied from red scrunchies. She is based off of Monica, which is why she is quite athletic and mainly wears crimson-red rollerskates. * Ruby R. Rosalina/'Ruby Rose' (voiced by Nika Futterman): A (harmless) zombie and a major antagonist but is rarely seen, who is a tomboy, likes to party and will get enraged if someone refuses to be in her parties (as only seen in a pilot). She also favors fish. She serves as the mice brothers' sergeant and watches over their actions, while trying to survive in her headquarters with many other mice minions. She has red hair, and also wears a tuxedo with shades of blue and a slightly tall blue top hat (with a red ribbon). She was based off of Zig from Zig & Sharko, but is obviously based off of Count Bleck by appearance and some of her traits. She also has a maid named Sapphire, who appears in Gunbreak. * Lily "Dalesman" Padmé/'Lilydale' (voiced by Grey DeLisle): A tall and skinny woman, who has long blonde hair, tanned skin and blue eyes. She is the owner of Bill (who doesn't live with him anymore) and is very smart. She wears a sailor dress and white goggles on her hair. She is based off of Sharko from Zig & Sharko, while her appearance was based off of Leni Loud from The Loud House. * Wendy O. Padmé (voiced by Ashleigh Ball): An overweight female child, who has pale salmon-orange skin, orange hair tied in braids (supported by blue scrunchies) and a blue dress with a white tank top, she is Belle's owner (formerly owning Bill). She is based off of the mascot of Wendy's and named after Wendy O. Koopa. She is also Lily's adopted child. * Butch (voiced by John DiMaggio): A muscular, fawn-furred Great Dane dog that lives next to Bill, who is obnoxious, has a nasty trigger temper and also has advanced technology. He is based off of Bob. * Nicole and Richard Watterson: Bill's deceased parents, named after Gumball's parents (Nicole and Richard), from The Amazing World of Gumball (which, in turn, were named after creator Ben Bocquelet's parents), followed by having Nicole being very overprotective of her son when he used to live with her, and Richard being laid-back and confident, but they both act feminine. Richard was also part of a military, and successfully defeated Ruby after a war that went on for many months, while he accidentally sent Sapphire to another dimension. * Leah and Lincoln Walters (voiced by Susan Egan and Tom Scharpling): Liam's parents, who later became Bill's aunt and uncle when Liam became Bill's adopted cousin. Lincoln is sporty and athletic, while Leah is gentle and very caring to her friends, even if some of her friends are quite mean. They seem to be based off of Oggy's relatives from the Oggy episode "Lightning Visit". * Loni Walters (voiced by Demetri Martin): Liam's younger brother, based off of Jack's nephew from the Oggy episode of the same name. Like Jack's nephew, he is immature and loves to eat any kinds of fatty foods, but he is also depressed and deadpan. * Will Watterson/'Willy Watterson' (voiced by Richard Steven Horvitz): Liam and Bill's younger cousin, who is 4 years old but is quite intelligent for one. He is based off of Pakdam Pakdai character Major Saab. * Sasha (voiced by Kari Wahlgren): Liam and Belle's child who is a cat, based off of Jack and Monica's child (who only appears in the Oggy episode "Don't Rock the Cradle!"). She is supposedly non-binary, but is referred to by female pronouns, due to her name. She has pink fur. * Milky Way (voiced by Lara Jill Miller): The mice brothers' adopted child, who is a mouse-demon hybrid. He is a quirky and insane baby mouse/pup who is very unstable, and also can get very monstrous. Despite this, he is a little absent-minded, even worse than Larry's. * Dee-Dee (voiced by Kat Cressida): Bill's pet, who is a tuxedo cat and his student, to help him take care and raise a child properly. He is curious and somewhat absent-minded. He is named after Dee Dee from Dexter's Laboratory, as opposed to Oggy's cat and student fan-named as Dexter. * Bubblegum (voiced by Hynden Walch): Bill's pet, who is a light brown dog and his student, to help him take care and raise a child properly. She is quite crazy, but still nice. She is named after Princess Bubblegum from Adventure Time, as opposed to the dog (which was Oggy's student) fan-named as Marceline. * Leni (voiced by Liliana Mumy, demonic voice provided by Bill Mumy): Larry's serious crush, based off of Lady K. Despite that she is gentle and kind, she is also insane, sadistic and unstable (when it comes to her worst enemies), but is aware that Bill doesn't deserve to be killed, less than Charlie and Ruby. She is a mouse with pink fur and a cyan bow, almost positioned next to her left ear. She was meant to be based off of Cipher, a scrapped character supposedly being a mentally disabled experiment, by Cucumber. She is so far the only character in the show portrayed with two voice actors. * Alan (voiced by Carlos PenaVega): Charlie's cousin from Mexico based off of La Cucaracha (Joey's cousin), who also taught Mexican culture to him. He is a brown mouse that is energetic and likes playing music with his guitar. * Perry (voiced by Paul Dobson): The mice brothers' cousin from Texas, who is a farmer. He also likes anything filthy, but cleans himself just in case of important, fancy visits. He is a red mouse that wears a gardening hat. His appearance is coincidentally similar to Monkey D. Luffy (a character from One Piece). * Pony shopkeeper (voiced by Cristina Pucelli): A crimson-coated pony with a two-tinted light green mane, who works all day in every shop known in Animeville, resulting her into getting sleep-deprived and stressed. However, she always will act energetic and kind to her customers in order to give and make them keep a smile on their face. They are based off of Pinkie Pie from My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic (but has a color scheme similar to that of G3 Applejack) and Larry Needlemeyer from The Amazing World of Gumball, but has a voice similar to Luan Loud from The Loud House. Other links * Episode list References Category:Slapstick Category:Slapstick Comedy Category:Black comedy Category:Comedy-drama Category:Anime-influenced animation Category:Prerana Category:Webseries